My Wishlist

The Afro-Dixie Remixes: A John Sims Project

To make the point that the African-American experience is central to any notion of Southern heritage, multimedia artist John Sims was inspired to confront this Dixie song subversively via remixing, reforming and cross-appropriation.

ABOUT THIS ALBUM

Album Notes

To mark both the 150th anniversary of the end of Civil War and the conclusion of Recoloration Proclamation —a fifteen-year multimedia art project, concerned with the politics of sacred symbols; social identity; visual terrorism, and the complex ownership of Southern heritage, featuring an exhibition of recolored and hanging Confederate flags; a multi-state flag funeral; a play; a documentary film and remixed Confederate music, I present to you, The AfroDixieRemixes.

The song “Dixie,” from its minstrel show beginnings to becoming the de facto anthem of the Confederacy, brings to mind as does the Confederate flag a cultural split between pride and fear, unity and segregation, heritage and historical amnesia. So, to make the point that fear is confrontable, cultural segregation is untenable and that the African American experience is central to any notion of Southern heritage, I was inspired to re-imagine the Dixie song as I did with the Confederate flag, through the colors and sounds of black culture.

It was in Sarasota, Florida and the surrounding area where I found a talented, diverse team of working musicians who, over the last thirteen years, have contributed to this project. The result is 13 tracks of dynamic “Dixie” —reloaded, rearranged and remixed in the major genres of black music, becoming the soundtrack for the entire Recoloration Proclamation and all its interlocking components. I am convinced that once you have listened to this music, you will never hear or feel “Dixie” the same way again.Contributing musicians: Johnnie Barker, Thomas Bentley, Patrick Bettison, Tom Carabasi, Ally Couch, Scott Curts, Ann Declercq, Kenny Drew Jr., Richard Drexler, Al Fuller, Geno and Skunk Boogie, Steady Joseph, Nigel Lewis, Michael Mendez, Henry Porter Jr./The Assembly of the Young and Gifted, Michal Rizman, Sal Sax, Eddie Tobin, James Verano, Twinkle Yochim. Also much gratitude to my associate producers, Sheala Durant, and Lisa Howell; Michal Rizman for his collaboration on arrangements, his slamming beats and audio tech support; Scott Curts for the extra mile and studio time; Brandon Sommers, who was there at the very beginning, and Matias Garcia Posadas and Mauro Alvarez for assistance with the CD design. And to music master critic and bandleader Greg Tate for the deep-grinding liner notes and to his band Burnt Sugar for a powerful funk version of “Dixie” performed at NYC Hangings: The Poetic Reflection, at the Bowery Poetry Club in 2006. I would like to shout out to Paul D. Miller (aka DJ Spooky) for his remix of the Jazz Dixie, which was presented at my Harlem flag exhibition at Fire Patrol #5 in 2002. And to Kenny Drew Jr. and Skunk Boogie, who have passed: we salute your contribution and everlasting memory.